<p>Since I have one son who just finished his sophomore year as a Geology major/Physics minor at California State University Sacramento and another son who just graduated from high school and plans to major in Physics at either CSU Sacramento, where he has been accepted, or community college with the hope of transferring to UC Berkeley in two to three years (We still can not decide which would be best given the California state budget situation; with SAT scores of CR 660 and M 720 he could probably do well at a UC but the CCCs are so overcrowded I don’t know when he would be able to transfer ) I have taken a keen interest in employment prospects for college graduates with degrees in science and have done some research.</p>
<p>I have found that Chemistry and Biology majors face by far the bleakest prospects. As UCBALUMNUS has mentioned, a very large number of students enter college each year with the hope of going to medical school and they usually choose Biology or Chemistry as their majors. However, the reality is that only a small percentage of these students will actually be accepted at any medical school in the U.S. which results in a large number of Biology and Chemistry degree holders looking for any job they can get.</p>
<p>There is no mechanism comparable to planning to go to medical school for Math, Physics or Geology majors that draws far more students into these majors than can be accommodated. As a result, the number of Math, Physics and Geology majors is small compared to Chemistry and Biology majors and there are generally enough good entry level jobs with prospects for career advancement in these fields that prospects for graduates with degrees in Math, Physics and Geology have much better prospects than students who majored in Chemistry or Biology.</p>